Twitter’s Mute Button is What Should be Muted

You can’t win them all. Sometimes you lose big. Other times, you don’t win or lose … you just stalemate yourself. That’s exactly what Twitter did when it rolled out the mute button this week.

Sure, I have fallen victim to long-winded fools who think in streams of endless tweets. People who like to write novels 140 characters at a time make me want to throw my computer through the window. Do they even realize that in order for me to decode their thoughts, I have to go to their profile and read the tweets in reverse? Stop it. That’s silly.

Perhaps it was those people (and others like them) that Twitter had in mind when they unveiled the mute option, but their is a better solution.

If I like what someone tweets, I follow them, and when someone constantly bombards my timeline, I UNFOLLOW them. This simple functionality is already part of Twitter. This makes Twitter’s mute button a little redundant.

I know that some of you will point out that the mute function allows you to anonymously remove any annoying Twitter user from your feed. To that, I say, why on earth would you follow someone who tweets so much that you have to mute them? Just unfollow them already, and move on with your life. You can still go back and check on them every once in a while to see if their prose have improved … but my bet is that they won’t.

Why Twitter wasted time and development hours to add this option is beyond me. It seems that Twitter’s money and resources would have been better spent elsewhere.

In the end, this change won’t really affect me (or anyone else) negatively OR positively. In won’t affect anyone in any way. It’s kind of like having a scoop of vanilla ice cream in your banana split instead of chocolate – ultimately who cares?

Live a little, Twitter. Break some ground. Wow us. We are dedicated. Give us something good and we will sing your praises. Give us something bad, and some of us will applaud you for trying. Give us something we already have and … yawn … what was I saying?

Andy focuses on capturing the attention of the communities that he builds for Speak Social. Our campaigns include various moving parts on multiple Social channels. A previous Project Manager for Integrated Technologies Inc., Andy held projects together with years of experience in streamlining process and communicating efficiently. These talents have made him a sought after Community Manager, earning him an invite-only position on the Klout Squad; something only awarded to those who prove their worth in Influencer Marketing. His success has also earned him the distinction of Rising Star in Social Media from Finger Candy Media. His blogs appear on Social Media Today, USAToday.com, FuseTV and DallasMorningNews.com. Most recently, he was written about on Gawker.com for his charitable online work with Team Adalia Rose.
Andy Gonzalez on Google+ @AndyViral